2011 Mineral Ridge Mine Tour/Scorpio Gold2011 Mineral Ridge Mine Tour/Scorpio Gold
I’ll give it my best shot………
There’s something to be said for being in the right place at the right time.
Many of us as gold investors feel this way, as we got in to this gold bullat the ground level all those years ago……
I had lightning strike me last week when I placed a phone call to GPXM to inquire about the recent drill program PR release by Scorpio Gold at Coyote Hole/ Well.GPXM has an option on the Coyote Fault Property adjacent to Mineral Ridge. ( apparently there’s a lot of Coyotes out there….sheep….you know the drill).As fate would have it, an opening due to a cancellation had just allowed me the opportunity to participate in Scorpio Gold’s 2011 Mineral Ridge Mine Tour……
I was pleasantly surprised by the opportunity, and after explaining to the dog that she would NOT be coming with me, I sent her to my daughters house,grabbed the wife and headed for Vegas at “O” dark thirty Wed morning.
I had 6 hours on that drive to consider many things.Amongst them, how sad it had been as a GPXM shareholder to see driven home just how poorly equipped the previous GPXM management teams were.
When you’re hamstrung by finances and lack Capital, the end result will ALMOST ALWAYS be failure.LUCKY for us NEW management, while not necessarily experienced in the ways of mining WERE experienced/fluid enough in management to preserve the company.
They PREVENTED several opportunities for the company to go bankrupt and managed to build a solid management team and a new business model simultaneously with the financial difficulties shared not only by both byGPXM but by hundreds of OTHER Jr. Mining companies during the 2008 financial meltdown……… the final piece of the management puzzle at that time was investment banker, Tom Klein.
Tom joined Golden Phoenix in the depths of the global credit crisis. Instead of seeing the company go “off the field” into receivership, AFTER getting to know the company’s crown jewel asset, he decided it’d be BETTER to save the company and bring a new perspective on the kind of business model that would be required to transform Golden Phoenix, into a much larger, multi-project company with diversified properties throughout the Americas and spread out the risk of doing business.
( https://golden-phoenix.com/management/)
WISELY Tom Klein got us out of the mine operator’s aspect of the mining business and deferred that responsibility to Peter Hawley of Scorpio Gold via a Joint Venture Agreement, preserving a 30% exposure to the Mineral Ridge Mine for GPXM’s shareholders. The saying is 1 is better than NONE….. and so it is… that 30% is better than 0%.Peter Hawley as you will soon see, is somewhat of mining genius.
SO as I was driving, I also pondered the wisdom of throwing more money in the direction of Mineral Ridge.I already had 172 K shares of GPXM ….and the shares were still limping along at this point and sometimes “enough is enough”. YET every time you attended a tour or a shareholders meeting you would get reminded of the REASON we were there and held shares in the company. WE ALL believed that Mineral Ridge was named for a REASON and that the REASON is VALID.STILL one has to say enough eventually………PERHAPS I could diversify and ADD Scorpio Gold to my portfolio….. IF the gold is there and they are successful it stands to reason that I could actually make some money by the JV Partner that has the other 70%.
TO ME it has ALWAYS been about the PROPERTY.
At any rate, I arrived in Vegas and got to meet the Scorpio Gold folks, indulge in a few drinks and DINNER.
Awesome.
They told us the bus leaves at 6 AM sharp…. Don’t be late….. or the bus won’t be there.
Needless to say…..next morning (which took forever to come because I was afraid to sleep through the alarm) at 6 AM we were off…....
That road to Silver Peak is bumpy and LONG…… we arrived at the “OLD” gas station in Silver Peak and transferred over to those familiar 18 passenger vans (BETTER shock absorbers than the bus)this is KEY later).
UP the hill we started- those of you that have MAPS follow along……
We passed the GPXM Project sign for the Vanderbuilt Project fairly quickly (nobody there at the moment)then we got up to the drill rig completing the Phase Three drill holes for Scorpio Gold’s 2011 drill program at Coyote Well – popped in there for a couple of minutes….. then proceeded UP to the mine.
The mine covers about 40 sq. mi.9 ishmi x 4 ish = 40 ish
We pulled in to the Scorpio Gold office and got our hard hats….. met the IMPRESSIVE Scorpio Team AND I got some good pics of updated maps….. and OFF we went to Soleberry.Soleberry (you’ll be glad to hear is eventually going to be part of Drinkwater…well…..EVERYTHING is going to be a part of Drinkwater before it’s all over. …... what do ya do when it’s hot outside????
DRINKWATER……
While up there,I got some pictures of the leach pad which NOW looks completely different…… then OFF to the Drinkwater Pit we went – it was THERE where you got the first hint that something was REALLY different….I literally didn’t recognize where I was.For one, there is WORK going on everywhere IN the pit- see the video – they did a controlled explosion of ore for the leach pad and by the end of the day THAT ore was on the pad for crushing/agglomeration.
The pad is larger and ORGANIZED…… The Drinkwater /Homestead Pit is to merge with the Mary Mine (North & South) (remember them power poles???) and Last Chance.The top comes off the Mary Mine this Sept - Oct.The power poles on the roof of the Mary Mine are being moved and the permitting is complete.The end result will be a pit that is an area roughly 1 mile long and .5 miles wideand under continual EXPANSION.
The Drinkwater Pit is going to get very large very quickly........ I suspect one of the drill rigs will be dedicated to the pit expansion process to keep them in the ore and out of un-mineralized rock (if there is any). They aren’t going to want to stop and wait on where to take ore, and they will need to extend some of the holes at depth as the pit gets deeper.
The last target on the list of the 2011 Drill Program announced last Jan ( not completed or in progress) :
•Drilling 1.12 miles (1.8 kilometres) east-northeast of the Drinkwater pit where numerous surface grab samples on a northwest-trending structure returned 0.03 to 0.25 OPT (0.85 to 7.09 g/t) gold.*
The Drinkwater pit will be expanded towards the down dip to the NE and eventually towards the existing leach pad SW, AND ALONG THE FRONT EDGE OF THE ENTIRE mine property heading NW towards Chieftan & Solbury.
Mary appears to extend the complete width of the property down dip to down dip........... from the power poles to Coyote Well...... 3- 4 mi
Assuming they (Scorpio) is progressing with it’s 2011 drill plan in order of it’s three phases, they are in PHASE III NOW.
•Drilling 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres) to the west-southwest of the Drinkwater pit where numerous surface grab samples collected over a distance of 600 feet (183 metres) on a gold-bearing structure composed of quartz and quartz flooding reported values ranging from 0.05 to 5.6 ounces per ton (OPT) equivalent to 1.42 to 158.76 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.*
This appears to be complete.
•Drilling 2.5 miles (4.02 kilometres) to the south-southwest of the Drinkwater pit where numerous surface grab samples collected over a distance of 800 feet (244 metres) on a gold-bearing structure similar to that described above reported values ranging from 0.043 to 4.6 OPT (1.22 to 130.41 g/t) gold.*
Only ONE drill rig currently operating on the property to expand targets and ozs at the moment employed at Coyote Well/Hole……SW of the Drinkwater Pit NOW. Two others are being used in the Drinkwater pit to identify voids/old tunnels…….
After Drinkwater we went to Tarantula, one of the last targets of the 2011 Drill program that is not complete or in progress.
•Drilling 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometres) south of the Drinkwater pit where numerous surface grab samples collected over a distance of 400 feet (122 metres) on a gold-bearing structure reported values ranging from 0.12 to 3.18 OPT (3.4 to 107.7 g/t) gold.*
I’m over 50 now… so this part was a little fuzzy on account of the sheep….. the big horns were out. This is all that remains of the planned 2011 drill program announced last Jan.
Trust me they are NOT done yet…..Additional permitting to expand drilling is in progress and will allow for additional drill rigs/drilling THIS summer.GPXM will also begin drilling THIS summer.
We departed Tarantula after some deft maneuvering for LUNCH.
Then can you say BARBEQUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Group Picture…..
Awesome (again)!
After lunch we went to the leach pad…… didn’t drive on it like last time……
AGAIN completely different than the last visit.Rented crusher – agglomerator – telescopinggrasshopper – money bags…..
Yeah – money bags…..
REMEMBER the moly supersacks at Ashdown??????
Well…………. FERGIT ‘EM!!!!!
GPXM left 750 tons of carbon fines in the pond - 3.5 opt gold and 6.1 opt silver worth aprox. $4 mil
The money bags are the super sacks sitting on the leach pad awaiting transportation and processing.
The Carbon fines from the ADR plant are shipped in the same or similar looking super sacks…..
(Twilight Zone Theme)
The 40 acre leach pad will be 40 ACRES/120 ft high when it reaches MAX capacity ( ETA 5 years).
The MILL will ready by then and of sufficient size.The leach pad will provide the mill with spent ore containing the remaining 35% of the gold.The mill will have its own tailings impoundment.The mill feed will be primarily high grade ore and the low grade ore will go to the leach pad.
The pad will eventually have to be moved as there is mineralization UNDER it....... There will eventually be a second leach pad…….before the first is moved/condemned.Currently production has been based largely on GPXM's RECRUSHED AND AGLOMERATED pad material (it wasn't agglomerated prior to this)...... The agglomerated ore is PERMEABLE and allows the leaching cyanide to do it's job.
The telescoping grasshopper takes the agglomerated ore and places it on the pad in a cone shape so as to NOT separate the ore from the concrete, preventing loss of permeability. The cement also helps keep the cyanide ON the ore so the gold dissolves…..The pad has to become completely saturated before it really begins to kick off the gold in quantity (thus the wait until Jul for better numbers…….. the new ore from Drinkwater will be the primary reason for the surge in production numbers the last two quarters of 2011 beginning around July 2011.
NEW ore from the Drinkwater pit is being added NOW. You get bump in production numbers with NEW ore and then the output tails off………
After the leach pad we went to the LAB & ADR Plant…..THIS is where my brain DIED….
I was impressed but in a different language than the one I speak….. so I nodded and smiled a lot.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS:
COCONUT HUSKS……. And the rest is magic!!!!!!!
Well… for Scorpio it is……
WE let the cat out of the bag.
Gold Production Projections are:
2011 25K ozs
2012 60-80K ozs
2013 100 K ozs
I’m just thinking out loud here, BUT as Drinkwater expands...... the company operations center and everything else is going to have to move ..... could be to the valley floor NE?
Where ever there is water......
There is a completely DIFFERENT feel to the Mineral Ridge mine. Having been on both a 2008 GPXM shareholders tour and a 2010 Scorpio Shareholders Tour, I believe I have a unique perspective of the difference in the property then and NOW. ( the leach pad REALLY was not done correctly).
The mine and its staffREEKs of competence….. this is supported by NUMEROUS amounts of visual evidence.Positive morale BLEEDS out of the crew Peter Hawley has assembled.Ownership Pride is evident throughout the CORE employees and the mine is ALIVE with activity….
Scorpio looks to be WELL on their way to making ridiculous amounts of $$$$$..... and while not as much, I believe WE GPXM shareholders (future Scorpio shareholders) will make a significant amount of money as well.
Based on this tour I would say that it'd be wise to ALSO acquire shares in Scorpio.
IF this mine EVER had a chance of succeeding it is NOW..... pro-activity goes a LONG way.
AND let me add this:
IF Peter Hawley can’t do it at MR…… it’s a LOST Cause.
SO with the tour over,we said our thanks,acquired some water and headed back down to Silver Peak via Blairof the NE side of Mineral Ridge….There was a HUGE dust devil out in the flats – pretty coll.
Got to Silver Peak and piled into the bus. Headed back for the main highway over that nifty road.The vibrations from the bus SHATTERED one of the bus windows………
:|
3 hours of NO AC in the middle of Nevada in Jun is no small feat…… sunburned and windburned I think. IF I wasn’t for Heineken….. I wouldn’t have made it.
I’m suffering from exposure.
I’ll be acquiring MORE exposure to MR via our joint venture partner…….
:)
Finally back at the hotel (Vdara) we had drinks and dinner again….. very classy and well done.
I ran out of questions.
Have MORE now.
They have ta incubate…………..
I’d like to Thank everyone that was involved in the tour…… it was…..
AWESOME!
https://www.scorpiogold.com/index.php?rub=news_article&ID=250
https://www.futuremoneytrends.com/GPXM.html
https://www.babybulls.com/PDF/11-06-21_Mineral_Ridge_Mine_Tour_Report.pdf
Eventually I’ll be posting photo’s on my facebook page .